“I don’t see any circumstances where we’d take steps to regulate the Internet itself,” Genachowski said Tuesday, during a meeting with Wall Street Journal reporters and editors. “I’ve been clear repeatedly that we’re not going to regulate the Internet.”

That may be the case, but when pressed, he admitted he was referring to regulating Internet content rather than regulating Internet lines.

And in that area, the FCC is trying to craft new rules that would require phone and cable companies to treat all legal Internet traffic that flows over their lines equally. The agency proposed draft “net neutrality” rules last fall, much to the dismay of Internet providers, who say there’s no need for the government to step in.